If you use the Office of Readings, you'll notice that for today's memorial--Sts, Cornelius and Cyprian--there are two different selections offered for the second reading.
Try to read them both if you have time.
One is a letter from Cyprian to Cornelius, rejoicing in the courageous public stands that have lead to his exile. "Words cannot express how great was the exultation and delight here when we heard of our good fortune and brave deeds..."
Those of us who are concerned about incipient religious persecution (by means of regulations,court decisions, and increasingly overt verbal hostility against Christians by politicians and federal paper pushers) need to go over this reading carefully and ask what adjustments we might want to make to our own attitudes about all this. We need to maintain a healthy tension between pushing back against this stuff (defending our rights as citizens) and at the same time, being aware that God may be offering us a great gift, the chance to faintly reflect the deeds of the martyrs.
The other reading is an account of Cyprian's martyrdom. I love his attitude in the first paragraph: Yep. that me. I did the things you said I did and I won't do the things you want me to do, so let's get on with it. Put me to death. Thanks be to God!
Yesterday, while writing yesterday's post about how to find the correct pages for saint's memorials, I got distracted while writing and left something out. (Thoughtless, giddy creature that I am.) That post has now been amended with information about a more minimalist way to do a memorial.
Try to read them both if you have time.
One is a letter from Cyprian to Cornelius, rejoicing in the courageous public stands that have lead to his exile. "Words cannot express how great was the exultation and delight here when we heard of our good fortune and brave deeds..."
Those of us who are concerned about incipient religious persecution (by means of regulations,court decisions, and increasingly overt verbal hostility against Christians by politicians and federal paper pushers) need to go over this reading carefully and ask what adjustments we might want to make to our own attitudes about all this. We need to maintain a healthy tension between pushing back against this stuff (defending our rights as citizens) and at the same time, being aware that God may be offering us a great gift, the chance to faintly reflect the deeds of the martyrs.
The other reading is an account of Cyprian's martyrdom. I love his attitude in the first paragraph: Yep. that me. I did the things you said I did and I won't do the things you want me to do, so let's get on with it. Put me to death. Thanks be to God!
Yesterday, while writing yesterday's post about how to find the correct pages for saint's memorials, I got distracted while writing and left something out. (Thoughtless, giddy creature that I am.) That post has now been amended with information about a more minimalist way to do a memorial.
